Farm bill agreement heading to floor

House-Senate negotiators reached agreement and filed a new farm bill late Monday, a nearly 960-page measure that combines a landmark rewrite of commodity programs together with bipartisan reforms and savings from food stamps.

As fast as the papers were signed, the meat industry — spurned in the final deal making — was already organizing to try to kill the measure when it comes to the House floor Wednesday.

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SOTU 2014: What to expect on farm bill

But for a moment Monday night, the stage belonged to the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture committees, who have struggled through two Congresses to hold together the frayed, often fractured coalition of agriculture and nutrition interests behind any farm bill.

“Compromise is rare in Washington these days, but it’s what is needed to actually get things done,” said Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the ranking Democrat who worked closely with Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) through some lonely months together. “My reservations are outweighed by the need to provide long-term certainty for agriculture and nutrition programs. This process has been going on far too long; I urge my colleagues to support this bill and the president to quickly sign it into law.”

Following his appearance before the House Rules Committee on Monday night, Lucas said an early procedural test could come as early as Tuesday, when the House votes on the rule making debate in order on Wednesday’s consideration of the conference report.

“That was a very kind Rules Committee meeting to me,” the chairman said, showing his exhaustion. “I think the momentum is here to complete this.”

Factoring in cuts already made during the two-year debate, the bill should generate about $23 billion in 10-year savings, a third of which is attributed to the nutrition title.

The single largest savings come from ending the current system of direct cash payments to farmers, which cost more than $4 billion annually and are distributed at a fixed rate — whatever a farmer’s profits.

This nearly 18-year-old program will be replaced by two options linked to real market losses. But the total dollars within the commodity title are projected to be substantially less, and more than ever, crop insurance emerges as the backbone of the farm safety net.

Reformers are furious that the final agreement waters down their efforts to rein in the growth of large farms by imposing limits on what each operation can receive. “This is an example of why Congress has a 12 percent approval rating,” said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

But elsewhere, the bill breaks new ground by using the leverage of crop insurance to try to promote conservation of the land by farmers.

And in the case of food stamps — the most-sensitive nerve for many urban Democrats — respected leaders in the anti-poverty field like Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said the compromise was “relatively favorable” and better than rolling the dice into another Congress.

About $8.6 billion would be cut, largely by cracking down on what many see as an abusive scheme now by states that distribute token amounts of low-income fuel assistance to food stamp households to help them gain higher benefits. Even then, a portion of the savings is plowed back into nutrition programs, including $200 million dedicated to up to 10 pilot programs to test new Republican and Democratic ideas to help jobless beneficiaries receive training and find employment.

No friend of past farm bills, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) came off the sidelines Monday night to embrace the deal as an improvement in current policy — for farms and food stamps.

House Republican conferees were upbeat about the prospects on the floor.

“As of right now, we’re progressing nicely,” said Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.), whose food stamp amendment last June famously helped to bring down an earlier version of the bill. “Positive, real positive,” said Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.).

Nonetheless, the vehemence of the anger expressed by major beef, pork and poultry lobbies left the GOP leadership edgy. Boehner may have work to do to win passage.

“There’s a lot of froth,” said one GOP aide, and much of that anger was aimed at Senate Agriculture Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

“We’re opposed to the bill, and Debbie Stabenow is to blame. She’s the one who said no,” said Colin Woodall, a vice president for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. When a reporter suggested the NCBA would be “breaking [Lucas’s] heart” if it took down the farm bill, Woodall didn’t back away. “We’re going to work it hard,” he said.